A Spider's Journey
by KingCheetah19
Summary: The remaining Avengers defeat Thanos, after Infinity War, and bring back the heroes that died. Peter Parker thought the worst part of his life was over, but his story had just begun and he had more to experience. He has a lot to learn in the upcoming years and his life gains many great memories but he also endures some horrible moments. WARNING:Spoilers for Avengers:Infinity War
1. Return of Peter Parker

There was an orange flash and suddenly Peter was back on Titan with the other Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange, all of which had disintegrated into dust when Thanos got all the infinity stones. They had been trapped in the soul stone but when Nebula obtained the gauntlet from Thanos's corpse she restored everything back to before the snap. Nebula was even able to bring back Gamora, Loki, and the rest of the asgardian refugees that were killed by Thanos, before he got all the stones, by using the time stone. Then Nebula used the connection of the stones to her mind to destroy the gauntlet and turn the stones into simple rocks.

Everything was back to the way it should be. Thor used a bi-frost to go to Titan and bring them back to Earth to celebrate their victory. Peter was in shock. He had never met Thor before and the god's power just blew the kid away. Peter, the Guardians, and Dr. Strange all entered the bi-frost and landed back in Wakanda, which was a country in ruins. The most technologically advanced country in the world was severely destroyed. "What would have happened if the Avengers were off Earth dealing with another threat?" he thought to himself. Ultimately Peter decided he didn't want to think about it as he walked up to greet the now enormous roster of Avengers. Cap and Tony were at the front there to welcome home their lost friends.

"Welcome back wizard, underoos, and you other people, the guardians of the galaxy, I think I recall." said Tony hiding his true emotions. He would not know what he would have done if Peter actually died for good. More importantly, he kept his promise to May Parker to get her nephew back. Tony knew that, like a mother grizzly, May Parker was no one to mess around with especially when it came to her nephew and him being Spider-Man. He knew that May would have killed him if he didn't bring Peter back, and it would have been more slowly and painfully than any other torture imaginable.

"It is truly great to have you all back and to meet most of you for the first time." said Cap. Peter was so happy, not only was the entire universe saved but Cap and Tony were talking again. He really hoped this would be permanent.

Peter spent time conversing with the new people he had just met. He especially liked talking to Shuri who, like him, had a very analytical brain and he could go all nerd on her without any worry. Shuri gave him her phone number so they could text even when he was in New York and she was the _princess of Wakanda_ , like wow, he personally knew not only the king of Wakanda, but now its princess as well. She was just about to tell him that she totally knew all the YouTube videos of him and that he was her favorite Avenger, but Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, walked into the palace.

Cap and Tony instantly turned to face him and see why on Earth he was here in Wakanda. Then the Secretary said "Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, James Barnes, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, and Peter Parker you have all violated the Sokovia Accords, come with me."

Instantly the group of individuals that were just named were surrounded by the other Avengers with Tony stating "Ross you will have to kill me before you break my team apart, **again**."

King Thor and King T'Challa spoke next saying that the Avengers were allies to each of their respective kingdoms, and arresting them or taking them in would be an act of war against them.

Secretary Ross, knowing full well the United States, even with its extensive military could never take on Wakanda or Asgard, let alone both. With that he said, "Then let this be a warning to you, if you do not surrender the people I just named then the world will know their secrets and they will be fugitives from every other country on Earth," looking directly at Peter as he walked out of the building and onto the jet he came from.

Peter looked at Tony and said "He can't do that can he? How does he even know my identity anyways?"

Tony just looked back at Peter, "He will not tell anyone your secret. Not if I have anything to do with it." With that Rhodey and Tony blasted off after Ross, leaving Peter with the other Avengers. He was terrified at the fact of the public knowing his identity then all his villains could come after the people he loved and cared about, and these days that circle is only getting bigger.


	2. The Cat Is Out of the Bag

After catching up to Ross and boarding his plane, Tony and Rhodey argued about how releasing anyone's identity especially the kid's would endanger their families and the heroes themselves. Ross knew this but he didn't care anymore. Tony and the other Avengers who originally supported the Accords were, now, all against them and this threat he issued against the world's heroes would certainly get him fired but he wouldn't go down without a fight.

During Tony's and Rhodey's rants to him, he secretly uploaded all the data he had on Parker's and the other Avengers' secret identity. FRIDAY alerted Tony of Ross's upload but it was too late. It was already on the internet and news sources were certainly enjoying the new information they had obtained.

Tony aimed his repulsors straight for Ross's head, Rhodey tried to calm him down but he could not. Then Pepper appeared in him helmet and when that failed to work Peter called Tony and begged him not to kill him, "It's okay Tony, the damage is already done, we can't change the past. But now be the role model I look up to, be the better man. Be the father I never had." Peter's words got Tony to lower his repulsors from a grinning Ross.

" I told you that they would pay. Now kill me you pathetic piece of..." screamed Ross. With that Tony backhanded him in the face, knocking him out cold.

Peter now had to deal with knowing that everyday his friends, and what little family he had left, were in danger. Everyday people could kidnap the people he loved and use them against him. He did not dawn the Spider-Man mask for the fame or the glory, he kept the mask on to protect the people he cared about and now that mask was completely obliterated by Ross's leaks.

He looked over to May concerned but she comforted him, "Everything is going to be alright Peter. Although you lost your secret you will still be loved by everyone in New York. I can take care of myself and I was thinking of moving in with the Starks since Pepper asked about it a couple months ago. We could even live in the Avengers compound upstate so we'd stay safe with all our new friends and family." While this did comfort Peter a little bit he was sad that he would definitely have to leave Midtown High, and all of his friends behind. He needed to know that they were safe and he was nowhere near the safe spectrum.

The atmosphere in the room changed from celebration to worriness. Peter felt like he had to address the elephant in the room and after thinking about it stood up on a table, "I am no longer safe for my friends to be around, and I will live in constant fear of Aunt May being targeted in order to get to me, however this is not going to ever stop me from being Spider-Man. People need me, and if I could save just one life after my identity was revealed than it would mean that being a hero is worth all the risks. I think May agrees with me that this job is much bigger than myself. I will never stop being Spider-Man until it kills me."

This stunned the Avengers, this 15 or 16 year old kid not only is not afraid of his secret being revealed, but also he is embracing it and will continue to be the hero he is. One thought entered everyone's mind after Peter's speech, "Damn, he is going to be better than all of us."

After his speech, Peter asked if it was okay for him to go home. Tony however suggested otherwise, maybe avoiding the commotion in New York would be best for the kid for now, and he asked T'Challa and Thor if Peter could stay with either of them. Thor would have loved for Peter to stay with him however, he needed to regroup his people and actually settle down on the massive island the world gave to the refugees in gratitude for their king being one of the main contributors to Thanos's defeat. T'Challa was hesitant at first, he also needed to rebuild his country, however Shuri begged her brother for Peter to stay. Peter was the only person who could even remotely keep up with Shuri's brain. After a long back and forth discussion, T'Challa welcomed Peter and his aunt into Wakanda, however May thought that it would be best if she tried to do some damage control in the states promising Peter that she would be safe with the Starks.

Before leaving the country of Wakanda, the Avengers sat down and talked a little more trying to get over the shock that their identities were revealed and they'll never be the same. Thor even wanted to play the game he used to do with Mjolnir, test the worthiness of the other Avengers.

Complete failures to pick up Thor's new weapon came from Tony, Rhodey, Clint, Scott, Sam, Bucky, Dr. Strange, T'Challa, Starlord, Rocket, and Bruce who gave them all a fright pretending to Hulk out like last time they played this game. The other guardians and most of the women decided not to try and the women insisted it being the boys' urge for competition and having no real reason for them to try, but Wanda lifted the hammer with her telekinesis which everyone claimed to be cheating. Steve got the hammer to budge and shocked everyone except Thor, he knew Rogers was a worthy person and would probably be able to lift Stormbreaker, eventually.

Then it came to Peter's turn. At first he refused to try because he didn't want to even touch the Asgardian equipment, he didn't think he was worthy of even that. But with some convincing from Shuri, mostly a promise that she would also try to pick it up, Peter was persuaded to at least give it a shot. Once he even touched the wooden handle he felt a extreme jolt of electricity, yelped, and jumped away from the hammer. Everyone around the table became silent, this had never happened before. Would Peter be worthy of the god's new superweapon?


	3. Worthy?

With a new anticipation in the air everyone encouraged Peter to go try again. Peter argued agan saying it definitely didn't deem him worthy, it shocked him, but again Shuri was there to pressure him to try again. He didn't want to look like a chicken in front of the person that just vouched for him to stay in her country.

He again walked up to the hammer but with caution put his hand on the handle. Another surge of electricity coursed through him but he didn't let go this time and lifted the battle axe/hammer off the table. Everyone was shocked, no one besides Thor himself could lift that hammer. But Peter just stood there in shock and then dropped the axe through the wooden table suddenly acting like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, "I'm so so sorry Thor. I didn't mean it, I… I…"

"Why in the nine realms are you sorry? You just wielded Stormbreaker, the weapon that helps me channel my power," boomed Thor, interrupting the teenager, "You, man of spiders, will make a great Avenger! Perhaps better than all the rest of us." Peter was speechless, he didn't deserve all this respect and admiration, after all, he was just a kid from Queens.

"Wow," said Tony, "You got he kid to not argue back and shut his trap. I don't think I have ever heard him this quiet for so long." In response Peter picked up the hammer and threatened to throw it at Tony which got a lot of laughs from everybody else.

After the whole shock factor was over the others were questioning if Peter could summon the bi-frost or control lightning or fly, but peter put the weapon down and remarked "This is a weapon not a toy. I'm curious too, to see what I could do, but I should be responsible and learn that another time while we get the world fixed up from the destruction Thanos caused," he said, "but first, your promise to try to pick it up, Shuri."

Shuri looked at him, disappointingly, she hoped he would have forgot, but she kept her promise walking up to the hammer and placing a hand on the handle, no shock for her. She lost her hopes on her worthiness but knew no matter what she did there was no way to outdo what Peter just did. However, she did get it to move, less than Cap but still it shook a bude that barely looked like anything. After she tried harder and failed to move it more, she began bragging to her brother that at least she could move it and he couldn't. T'Challa looked at his sister and smiled teasing her that he didn't see it move although he did.

"Well this certainly has been an exciting night, but we need our rest, we just saved the entire freaking universe, so I think everyone should try to go home and get some sleep." said Peter Quill surrounded by the other guardians.

"The lord of the stars is right, I need to rebuild my kingdom. Stark could you show me this island the people of Earth so graciously gave us?" stated Thor. The King needed to make contact with his people but he could at least look to see how much space they are dealing with. Upon arrival he would certainly tell Loki and Valkyrie about the midguardian that could wield his new hammer, after of course, explaining how he got his new hammer in the first place.

"Sure, it's just in the middle of the Pacific. A bunch of countries artificially created it in order to say thanks." responded Tony as Thor used the bifrost to go to Hawaii which apparently was not far from his new home, taking Tony with him.

T'Challa took Peter, after Peter said his goodbyes to May and the Avengers, to find his new quarters. Fortunately he had a room next to Shuri's that was open and thought it was the perfect idea to keep the good friends together and as far away from him as possible. Peter just marveled at the complexity of the Wakandan architecture and was very grateful that the palace was one of the few buildings not heavily damaged in the battles with Thanos in Wakanda. Peter thanked Shuri and T'Challa and headed off to sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day with the news reports of his identity reaching the rest of the world. After all, New York was around 7 hours ahead of Wakanda in the dead of the night so no normal person at his school would be up to see the news of him being Spider-Man. Peter struggled with the concept of telling all his friends that he kept his secret to keep them safe and the fact that Flash had a man crush on half of his persona but bullied the other half. Life was sure going to be different after tonight.


	4. A Bond Develops

Peter crashed hard that night, although he had a lot of things on his mind he needed the sleep. Once he woke up his phone blew up with notifications from every news network on the planet and all of his friends wondering why Peter, of all people, was outed as Spider-Man. Peter groaned, not wanting to deal with any of this and powered off his phone. If May or Stark called, he would get a notification in his suit so he could turn his phone off and not be worried about having no connection to them if an emergency occurred.

After getting out of bed and getting dressed, Peter heard a knock on his door from one of the Dora Milaje asking him for his presence for breakfast. Peter rushed out the door hoping to explore more of the palace and help as much as he could with rebuilding the city.

Once Peter got to the dining room, he was served with an amazing omelet and an exotic dish created in Wakanda. Although he had a very active metabolism and usually ate very quickly, Peter savored every bite of his breakfast ad ate slowly to act more respectful at the royals' breakfast.

During the meal, Shuri asked if Peter wanted to help her in her lab and Peter agreed thinking that it would be a great thing to keep his mind off of things at home. After thanking the chefs and T'Challa for breakfast Peter was grabbed by Shuri and whisked away into her lab. The entire day was spent by Peter and Shuri coming up with new ideas and developing upgrades to the Kimoyo Beads, because, as Shuri put it, "Just because something works doesn't mean it cannot be upgraded."

Shuri even gave Peter some because they could keep in touch even better than his "primitive" cellphone and once Peter inevitably left for New York, Shuri and him could still keep in touch and discuss ideas and designs.

Although Shuri was the smartest person on the planet, except maybe for some Richards guy in Manhattan at some Baxter Building Peter was talking about, Peter adapted quite well to her fast paced brain and was able to keep up with her train of thought and even fix some mistakes Shuri had made in coding and implementing features into the beads. This duo of some of the smartest minds on Earth really increased the efficiency of the upgrades and even had a prototype ready by late afternoon.

Since they spent the whole day in the lab, after a quick snack, T'Challa forced Shuri to show Peter around some of the natural wonders in Wakanda and spend time with him outside. T'Challa could see it already, these two would create a lasting friendship to last a lifetime and would change the face of the technological development of Wakanda forever, but he wasn't complaining. Shuri needed someone able to keep up with her brain, because he certainly could not understand half the things she said.

Shuri took Peter to visit the vibranium mines, the place T'Challa was crowned Black Panther, and finally to a high plateau overlooking the city. They sat there for 2 hours and just talked about implementing genetic access for the kimoyo beads in possession of people high up in Wakandan government, until the sun began to set and they sat together and watched as the beautiful event bathed the whole country in bright pinks and oranges.

Peter marveled at the sunset as Shuri thought to herself about how cute, intelligent, and helpful he was. She was developing a crush on Peter but of course Peter was oblivious to it.

She took his hand and walked him back down to the palace where T'Challa instantly recognized Shuri's feelings and gave her some space to be alone with Peter. If Shuri was to date any outsider boy, he was glad it was Peter, he just wondered about if the relationship were to progress, what would the council think of Shuri in love with an outsider?

He found them hard at work at implementing the genetic access and told them to stop overworking themselves and go to sleep, it was nearly 11 at night. Shuri refused saying they were only a couple hours away from a breakthrough. Peter's advanced level of chemistry knowledge helped the project move much faster than without him and they finished in half an hour. However, the prototype wouldn't let Shuri access the important files on her beads and they decided to work on it tomorrow.

"Peter before you go off to sleep, could I ask you something?" said Shuri.

"Of course you can ask me anything? Are you okay? You look really red." he responded. Shuri wanted to ask Peter out but didn't know if it was too early since they had only just met a couple days ago. She decided to not ask him yet and wait for him to indicate he was interested.

"Do you want... You know what I'll wait until tomorrow. I need some sleep. Goodnight Peter."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Princess."


	5. Back to Reality

Peter couldn't fall asleep that night. He had a lot on his mind. He decided to turn his phone back on and only answer the texts from his closest friends, MJ and Ned. He would not be doing any interviews or answering any phone calls from the multiple news networks that contacted him, he agreed with Mr. Stark that staying in Wakanda and avoiding the commotion in New York was best right now.

The identity crisis coupled with the fact that Shuri wanted to tell him something but didn't created butterflies in his stomach. What did she want to ask him? Is it what he thinks it is? Does Shuri want to ask him out? He really hoped so since talking to and hanging out with Shuri made him so happy. She made him comfortable and they could talk about anything. He's done a lot of research into relationships, one thing he is not good at, and seen that the best couples are the ones that call eachother their best friends.

He definitely saw Shuri as his best friend right now, even above Ned because Ned had no idea what it was like to fight against Thanos. Although Shuri didn't trade blows with the mad Titan she was there in Wakanda and played a crucial part in upgrading the technology the Avengers needed to defeat Thanos. She understood some of what Peter went through and was there to talk to, while Ned was halfway around the world and had no idea of what Peter saw or went through.

If Peter ever needed a relationship it was now, but he has so much other things to deal with currently that he couldn't spare the time to ask Shuri out. But if she were to ask him, he would have definitely said yes.

Peter woke up the next day with less than 3 hours of sleep to the same ringing on his phone as the day before. He decided to stop hiding from the texts and answered all of them except the media outlets, he definitely needed a mentor for that. He happily answered every kid that looked up to him and even responded to Flash confirming that Peter doesn't think anything different of Flash after the news of Peter's identity was leaked, he wasn't going to beat Flash up.

The same Dora Milaje as yesterday again summoned him to breakfast but something was different today than yesterday. Yesterday Peter could ignore all the messages and had a break from all the drama in the states, today everything was coming in and Peter didn't stop any of the messages. He wanted to talk to the people that admired him and thanked him for being the hero he was, but with this he also faced criticism that he hadn't heard before. Death threats, letters from parents who kids he couldn't save, and news articles of people he let down came in every minute and it wore down on Peter.

T'Challa noticed this but decided to not confront Peter until after breakfast when he walked up to Peter and asked what was wrong. Peter quickly deflected the question by asking if the genetic access on his Kimoyo Beads was working correctly. Peter didn't know T'Challa all that well and didn't feel comfortable asking the king for help. T'Challa quickly learned this and let Parker be, but as Peter walked back to his room he could hear T'Challa talking to Shuri.

Not 10 minutes later Shuri walked up to Peter's door and knocked. When there was no answer she called out to Peter asking if she could come in.

"No. I need some time to be alone right now." Peter bluntly answered. However Shuri was not discouraged and just unlocked the electronic lock and opened the door anyways. "Hey!" Peter responded to Shuri not any listening to him but she walked over to Peter and hugged him.

That was when Peter just let it out, hugging Shuri back and trying to hold back some tears. "I can't do this. My identity being out there is putting me at the center of attention and I don't want any of it. I didn't put the mask on for fame, that's why I wear the mask! Now Ross has taken that away from me and I'm not ready." said Peter. Shuri could hear the pain in his voice, "Everything is different now. I can't be the same hero, I thought everything was going to be okay. I wanted it to be okay, but the change is too drastic and too fast for me to adapt to it." Even in his weakest moments, Peter found a way to sound smart, talking about evolution in this case.

Shuri sat there and thought of a response in order to to help Peter, "This is going to be hard to overcome at first. Things will need to change, but that's the best thing about evolution. As an organism evolves it gets stronger and overcoming problems in their environment helps the species survive. The same goes for change happening in your situation. It will be hard to get used to the fact that everyone knows your Spider-Man, and I can't say I know that from experience, but this change will promote positive growth in your life in one way or another, you just have to get through the hard stuff first. And you have an advantage to evolving organisms, you have other people you can lean on to help you. I know your aunt and Stark are there for you, only one call away. The rest of the Avengers also have your back. T'Challa and I will help you here. If you need anything you can talk to me, okay?" After she said that Peter relaxed a little bit, she was right. He had the best family in the world, the Avengers.

With one last hug, Shuri got up and was walking towards the door but Peter said, "What did you want to ask me last night?" This confused her, "Why, in the middle of his crisis would he have asked about last night? Oh god, does he know?" she thought to herself.

"Um, don't worry about it. I just… You're not in the right mindset for me to ask you that question." she replied hoping Peter would drop it. Unfortunately he didn't practically begging her to tell him the question because, as he put it, "You got me out of a seriously bad spot right there Shuri. The least I can do is answer a question that obviously means something to you."

Shuri thought "Do I tell him or not? I really wish I could ask T'Challa for advise on this one… You know what let's go for it."

"Peter," she said, "I know you are in an emotional weak spot right now and I don't want you to make a decision because of that instead of what is right for you. So please take this into serious consideration before answering, okay? Spend at least a day thinking about it, please don't make a rushed judgement." After getting a nod from Peter confirming that he would take serious thought into his decision, she paused for a moment. She really contemplated not telling Peter about her liking him but she decided she was too far down the rabbit hole and, therefore, she continued, "I know we haven't spent much time together and this may seem a bit rushed but you are literally the only person to have ever step foot in Wakanda to understand me. I can't help but like you, you're cute, funny, smart, kind, and my best friend. You're the most amazing person I've ever met. So my question is, will you be more than friends with me? Will you be my boyfriend, Peter Parker?"


	6. Just Parker Luck

Peter was shocked, the princess of Wakanda just asked him out, him, a nobody from Queens. He had already made up his mind the night before, he also liked Shuri so he would say yes, but he was going to honor her wish of him waiting a day for his response. He watched as she walked out of his room and to her bedroom next to his to sleep.

For a second night in a row, he didn't get very much sleep but this time instead of his identity being the pressing issue on his mind, it was Shuri. He was stressed out, he had "dated" Liz but he didn't think that counted because it was only the homecoming dance and he screwed even that up pretty bad. How on Earth was he going to be a good boyfriend for Shuri? What should he do with her for the first date? When is the right time to hold hands, hug, kiss?

He fell asleep anxious but happy. With everything else that was going on right now in New York, it was good to know that he was doing well in one aspect in his life in Wakanda. Dreaming of more sunsets they will see together.

He woke up the next day with a renewed sense of optimism. But this is Peter Parker, his luck is not that good, with one good thing, comes another bad one. The breakfast he had was once again amazing, and T'Challa could see the new spark in Peter's eyes. He was happy for the boy, but he had no idea why he was so happy all of a sudden. Knowing how uncomfortable Peter was around him, he decided not to bug him about it.

T'Challa had a lot of meetings to go to that day and he wanted the rest of Wakanda to meet Peter and welcome him into their home. The only person that didn't seem all that thrilled with Peter's arrival in Wakanda was M'Baku, but that was to be expected. Once M'Baku met the boy and spent some time around him T'Challa was optimistic about him changing his mind. He asked Peter after breakfast if he would like to spend time with the Jabari, which, with a little bit of convincing, Peter accepted and was getting to spend most of the day with the tribe, whether M'Baku liked it or not.

Peter learned a lot from the Jabari who, he learned, used little to no technology to sustain themselves and instead used more traditional methods of agriculture and woodworking, unlike the rest of Wakanda. Peter found the woodworking especially useful and thought that these skills would be helpful in helping in the lab with Shuri and rebuilding the rest of the city. Much to M'Baku's astonishment, Peter learned very quickly all the advanced techniques he showed him and was even able to offer insight on making the Jabari's production more efficient without incorporating vibranium into the tribe.

After working for half the day with Peter, M'Baku decided to test his skills in combat, which Peter gladly accepted. It was not extremely difficult for him to defeat Peter but he did find the boy's powers very unique and his strength hard to overcome. M'Baku's experience and fighting style ultimately lead to his victory, but he respected Peter much more after his battle. It wasn't often that any warrior could last very long with M'Baku, let alone a child of such age. M'Baku even showed him some techniques that he knew Peter would quickly pick up, to sow how much he respected Peter. M'Baku could not believe he was thinking this but the outsider was a great addition to Wakanda and he even invited Peter for dinner, which was sourced from the agriculture in the Jabari tribe. Peter was slowly getting the Jabari to understand the benefits of opening up Wakanda to the rest of the world, even after Thanos decimated the city.

Peter was hesitant at first with M'Baku but he learned to understand the point of view of M'Baku who, like him, did not enjoy the constant change happening around him. Peter was grateful for all the experience he learned from M'Baku and was definitely going to use some of the techniques he was taught once he got back to New York. Suddenly, he didn't seem like such of an outsider in Wakanda anymore and instead found himself adapting to the cultural and physical differences between New York and Wakanda. He became less homesick and began cherishing every moment he got in this amazing country.

T'Challa was very pleased to hear of all the things Peter was able to accomplish with the Jabari and was very surprised to see M'Baku smiling as he took Peter back down to the city.

After spending most of the day with M'Baku, Peter saw the city mostly rebuilt and was determined to help with the rest of the construction. After asking T'Challa, he went straight into the city and was an immediate impact in the reconstruction effort. His superpowers were quite useful in rebuilding the buildings and his identity being kept secret was no longer a problem. Peter was starting to think that his identity being released was less like a burden but more like letting go of one. He didn't have to pretend anymore and he could combine the benefits of both his Spider-Man side and his Peter Parker side.

After a long day of work Peter went back to his room to relax and think about going out with Shuri again. Not even a minute after reaching his room, Peter's spider sense went berserk but there was no immediate danger. Nothing was happening in Wakanda, it was almost too quiet. Was something coming for him, or Shuri? Peter was trying to understand what was happening with his spider sense when Shuri knocked on his door asking if Peter had thought about the other night and what his answer was. Unfortunately he was a little preoccupied with his spider sense to notice her question and while he was trying to get that under control he chucked his television remote across the room and turned on the news.

BREAKING NEWS: Iron Man was defeated and May Parker was kidnapped by new villain, Green Goblin.

Peter screamed out "NO!" which Shuri, who didn't actually enter the room, thought that was her answer and ran away in a fit of tears. That was such an emotional response, what did she do wrong?

Peter, trying to hold everything together was barely able to follow her and say, "No, I meant yes to you. I said no in response to the news, look," ultimately Peter lost control and started crying. Shuri walked back to his room, she had no time to even think about Peter's response before she saw the news report. Trying to understand how this happened she called for T'Challa. The invincible iron man was defeated by a rookie criminal, how? How could Tony defeat Thanos but not keep May Parker safe? There had to be something else that the goblin was able to do to be able to beat Tony. Her logic was slowing fading as she started to get angry towards the news report.

T'Challa was talking to M'Baku but once he got Shuri's notification on his beads he came running into Peter's room. Once he arrived he shut off the T.V. and looked at Shuri, who was visibly upset. He saw Peter in a mess around Shuri and understood what he had to do. Standing up he said, "Get up you two. We are going to New York immediately!"


	7. Back to New York

The usual 17 hour flight back to New York from Wakanda took only 12 thanks to Shuri's constant upgrading to every piece of tech she could get her hands on, but that didn't keep her from wishing she could have upgraded it more so they could have been there even faster. She could see the distress forming on Peter's face but there was nothing she could do about it. No matter how much she tried to comfort him, the reality of his aunt being taken hostage by a supervillain could not be overshadowed by her.

Once they arrived in new york they were greeted by Tony and Pepper at the Avengers compound. Peter couldn't even look at Tony, with the pain of losing his aunt still very fresh and Tony's failure to protect her on the forefront of his mind. Looking around Peter saw every Avenger at the mansion, from Thor to Hawkeye, everyone was there and they were all huddled around a table and conversing amongst eachother seemingly developing a strategy of some sort. Peter walked up to the table to see documents of the Green Goblin and all the information the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. had on him.

Captain America was the first to come up to Peter in the other group of Avengers, "We will find your aunt Peter, I promise. Tony has gotten every piece of information on the goblin from every agency on Earth, Natasha has talked to Fury and gotten him to keep us informed on every piece of surveillance they could get a hold of, Thor has Heimdall looking 24/7 but it seems the goblin has something that can hide May from him even, we have put every Avenger on this, we will find her." he said putting his arm around Peter, "Now we have 4 of the smartest people in the world in this room to keep put all the information together. I've contacted the Guardians and they will be here shortly. Everyone is working on this..." as Cap was continuing to talk, FRIDAY alerted Tony that more people have arrived to help. Opening up the door to the compound Tony thanked some people Peter couldn't quite make out for coming and invited them in.

"Hello Peter," one of the people started, "my name is Reed Richards, this is, my wife Susan, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm. The Fantastic Four are also here to help in as many ways as we possibly can." Peter couldn't believe his eyes, the Reed Richards and his team of superheroes are also here to help him. He would have freaked out because he was in the room with the three smartest men and the 2 smartest women on Earth, but he couldn't get over the circumstances for all them being there. "I hear that your aunt is somehow been kidnapped but Heimdall, the one who sees all, cannot find her? Since the goblin is doing so much to try to keep her hidden from him, I think I have a friend that can help find her another way," he says as he motions to someone in a wheelchair. "Hello everyone, my name is Professor Charles Xavier, I run a school for the gifted, or as you would call them mutants, and, Peter, I think I have found your aunt."

Boarding the plane, Peter was very confused. Why would all these teams put all their resources into helping Peter, a relatively unknown and small time hero, find his aunt. The professor then answered his thought, "Peter, we are here because you are the best aspects of every hero in this room. You have the passion of Steve Rogers, the intelligence of Reed, Tony, and Bruce, the training from T'Challa, powers on par with half of my X-Men, the determination of Stephen Strange, the worthiness of Thor, the hand to hand skill of Clint, the potential of Shuri, and you are just 16. Peter you've done things in your life that most of us will never be able to and you haven't even lived a quarter of it yet. You're the person we all wish to become and you are the future of the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and Fantastic 4. Peter, you're as close as we can get to a perfect hero and you have so much heroics left in your life. Now let's go find your aunt."

Almost 4 hours later and the Avengers landed in Colorado. Peter was familiar with the state, Ben and May took him there on a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and to go skiing, which he quickly learned how to be proficient at but not without falling on his butt a couple dozen times, but didn't exactly know why Goblin brought May there. Almost as if he read his mind, Reed came up to Peter and told him where May was, a military bunker in Colorado Springs called the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, meant to protect the president in the case of nuclear war.

It took the combined efforts of Reed, Tony, Bruce, Shuri, and Peter to break the firewalls to gain access to the building's security so they could find out where exactly May was and make a plan around it. It didn't take long for the group to follow the path of death and destruction the goblin left and they located May in the deepest part of the bunker. Thor was ready to teleport them all into that room with his bi-frost but Reed said it was too risky because of the size of the room and May's likelihood to be killed if all of them just showed up right next to Goblin. Instead, Reed put the security controls with the guardians and Bruce telling them to keep the security cameras on loop as they entered the building Banner wanted to help but then realized releasing the Hulk in a small underground bunker probably wasn't the best of plans and agreed to stay with the Guardians.

Richards took his team and told Susan to go ahead and scout to make sure there were no traps or tripwire for all these heros to be stuck in. Not even a minute later she came back confirming traps but they didn't look like traps to actually keep heros pinned down but focused more on slowing, specifically, Peter and Tony down. Unfortunately for the Goblin, Peter and Tony weren't the only heros at the bunker. Flamethrowers were easily taken care of by the Human Torch, tasers only made Thor more angry, Reed just stretched himself over pit traps, and this kept Peter going at full strength. 10 to 15 traps later the heroes burst through the door that goblin was located in, who obviously wasn't expecting this many heroes.

Before any of the heroes could do anything they saw May strapped up to a chair which looked to be connected to some wire above a tank of water. A flamethrower was pointed at her from behind and the Goblin stood in front of her laughing. "Hello heroes. While you may outnumber me a hundred to one, I still have won. See, I didn't kidnap May Parker just to give her back. I was expecting Tony and Peter but the rest of you will be nice company for the show."

"I swear Goblin, if you touch her, I will kill you." said Peter as he debated on activating insta-kill mode on his suit. As Peter said that the Goblin just laughed and uncovered May's mouth.

May's final words were, "Peter, you would have made Richard and Mary so proud of you. You have been the best thing to have ever happened to me and Ben's greatest achievement. We love you so much Peter. Keep being the good in today's world and keep being Spider-Man, but don't lose track of yourself. The best part about you isn't Spider-Man, it's Peter Parker. I love you!" with that goblin flicked a lever and electricity was brought into the chair.

Every hero in the room rushed over to May but a force field stood in the way, Strange and Thor used their methods of transportation, the teleportation ring and bi-frost respectively, to get through the obstruction. Thor obliterated the Goblin, tearing off every piece of armor he had and almost killing the man. Dr. Strange rushed over to May Parker, checking her vital signs and using whatever magic he could think of to help her heal. It was too late. May Parker died from the Green Goblin and his electrical chair.

Once the field was disabled by Bruce and the Guardians, Peter rushed over to his aunt, the last of his family. "No! No, no, no, no, no! May stay with me. Don't leave me, too! I love you, May, I'm so sorry!" He held her, crying for an hour.

The heroes lost. For the first time since Thanos, the heroes seriously lost. They had the biggest team they've ever had and they couldn't save Peter's aunt. Wanda grieved, knowing exactly what it felt like to lose someone that close to you. Steve and Tony stood in shock, the boy protected by every hero in existence and who represented the best parts of themselves and every other hero in the room just lost the last thing that kept him going. Thor threw his hammer at the wall, blaming himself for not being there quicker. The Fantastic Four and X-Men at in silence, they didn't know Peter personally but they knew what he stood for and knew his story. Nobody deserves this, especially Peter.

Peter carried May out of the base saying nothing to the heroes who said nothing to him. The 4 hour ride back to New York seemed more like 4 centuries, and Peter lost what seemed to be his own body weight in tears.

Shuri didn't know how to comfort him, every time she got close he shut himself off from her. Ultimately she leaned on his shoulder and cried with him, May, although she didn't know her long, was Peter's only living relative and Peter's everything. Now Peter lost what made him, who he was. May was one of the last pieces of him that kept his spark going. He couldn't protect her. When he lost Aunt May, he also lost himself.


	8. Goodbye

The news picked up May's death pretty quickly. Peter wished to be left alone, especially now, but every time he went outside he was surrounded by reporters quite quickly. Eventually, he had Tony or another Avenger escort him everytime he went out because he didn't want to deal with the media.

All charges against the Avengers were dropped, the UN was having discussions on new accords, Secretary Ross resigned his position of Secretary of State, and the FBI is looking into whether or not he violated UN laws. Even if the FBI charges Ross, the damage to the heroes has already been done. Nothing will bring their secrets back. Nothing will bring May back. Of course Peter knew that but it didn't stop him from trying every option he could think of.

2 weeks went by and Peter only talked to Shuri, but even that was very sparse and unenthusiastic. Every person in the Avengers compound could see that Peter was struggling but it took awhile before anyone knew how to talk to him.

Every night after May's death Peter was very active on the streets of New York, stopping more crimes than anyone thought possible. Criminals thought there were multiple Spider-Men because it seemed like Peter was stopping multiple crimes at the same time. Crime rates from Queens to lower Manhattan drastically dropped because of Peter's constant monitoring. This ended up ruining Peter's plan because he wanted to take all his anger out on the criminals he faced, when he kept stopping crimes he had less and less people to fight. Peter needed a new coping method and then threw himself into his work.

He worked for hours on his suit and made upgrades that Stark didn't think were possible. Peter spent nights working on his web shooters and the afternoons fighting criminals getting very few hours of rest, and the time he did get to sleep, he constantly was having nightmares of losing Ned, MJ, and Shuri.

Shuri, who knew exactly what Peter was doing to cope since she used this strategy herself, convinced him to spend a day with her out in New York City. Not trying to ruin Shuri's first trip to the city, he hid his pain away with a shadow of enthusiasm as he took her to all the tourist attractions. Peter was momentarily happy and almost forgot about the loss of his aunt until they came back to the Avenger's compound and a wave of depression rushed over him. Shuri noticed the change in his eyes and took him to his room and sat with him as he cried.

Peter hated feeling weak in front of Shuri, but he couldn't hold in the emotions he was feeling. Instead of investing himself in his work or heroics, he decided, from now on, he would lean on Shuri for support and spend as much time with her as he could. She made him happy and happiness was extremely rare for him, now. Some days he had her in his lab, making improvements to the suit and just spending time with her, other days he went out into the city and went on small dates, but the days he cherished the most were the days they stayed in and watched movies or just talked. He didn't know why he deserved such an amazing girlfriend, thanking her after every day for being there for him and spending time with him. He was slowly getting better until the funeral was upon him.

At May's funeral every hero was present. People like James Howlett, Jessica Drew, Wade Wilson, Carol Danvers, and many others, all of whom Peter had never met before, were there to show support for the young hero. Mentors like T'Challa and Stark were with Peter the most that day, making sure he was alright and letting him know that they were there if he needed them. Although not all the people that were present at the funeral knew May Parker personally, they knew how important she was in Peter's life and how influential she was in why he was such a great hero. The funeral was televised and millions of viewers tuned in to pay their respects towards May and Peter. Peter looked at the clock dreading the time he was going to go up and speak. Slowly he walked up to the podium barely holding himself together.

"Hello everyone. Thank you all for coming. Today we are here to celebrate the life of a remarkable woman. May was the most kind, compassionate, and caring person I had ever met. After my parents died in a plane crash, when I was only 5, she took me in like a mother and made me the person I am today. She taught me how to be the best version of myself and kept me going in the worst times. Although she wasn't my biological mother, she made it her goal to become the best mother to me that she could possibly be. We weren't the perfect family, but I wouldn't change anything for the world. She was the best role model for me and, while I may be the more well known hero, she was my hero." Peter spoke taking a pause to gain control of himself again, "My life will be forever changed without you in it May. Thank you for being the greatest aunt, no, the greatest mother I could have ever asked for. I will miss you and I will continue to be the hero you were so proud of. I love you." He walked away from the stands and every person in the audience was in tears. Natasha, someone who normally can hide her emotions quite well was tearing up, Tony was softly crying trying to compose himself so he could talk next, Steve and Sharon were together looking at eachother hoping they would never lose the other, T'Challa looked at his sister who hugged Peter as he took a seat next to her. All the heroes bowed their heads and thought, if only they could have been better and actually have saved her.

Next to speak was Tony, who recalled how hesitant May was of him at first. He told the stories of May threatening him if anything happening to Peter. He was terrified of May, and she was the only person in the world that he could honestly say that about, except for maybe Pepper. T'Challa took the podium next talking about how important May was in the defeat of Thanos. Although she was not family to any of the Avengers, except Peter, she was the person who kept them going. She provided a home for them while they were battling in New York, she gathered information from everything she could get her hands on, and she kept threatening the team in order to get them motivated to bring back Peter. T'Challa stated that she "was just as important to the fight against Thanos, as any of the heroes." He praised her for her bravery and being inspiration to keep fighting when the heroes were full of doubts.

Peter didn't stay long after the burial, keeping himself out of the media's clutches for as long as humanly possible, and he traveled back to the mansion with a few of the other Avengers. Checking his phone he saw a website devoted to May's life which showed condolences from every country in the world. The presidents of the U.S. and Canada, Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, and many other people in power paid their respects and held press conferences to say a few words.

Interested in what the president said, Peter opened up a video from his conference. He was surprised to hear a personal bit of gratitude towards May and he even gave her a medal for her bravery and help in the fight against Thanos. "Although her actions during the war against Thanos are very important to commemorate, her greatest gift to this world was through her nephew, Peter. Peter, I am so sorry for your loss and I hope you keep being the amazing kid your aunt would want you to be. Thank you for your service to this country and being a hero the world needs." said the president, who finished by thanking the reporters and leaving the room.

Peter had all the heroes that could stay over so he could talk to all of them and get their stories of May from when he was "dead" from Infinity War. He soon learned that Tony wasn't the only person that was afraid of May. Even the god of Thunder, thought that May would have killed him if Peter didn't return which brought a small smile to Peter's face. Hearing all the stories of May and seeing how much each of the heroes admired her really helped Peter through her death. Tony announced that he was going to put up a memorial at the entrance to the Avenger's Compound so people could see how amazing May was. May's death wasn't hurting Peter as much as he thought it would. Of course it hurt a lot, but all the praise May received and how much she meant to each hero made her death seem more like a reason to do better and be greater heroes rather than a reason to get down on themselves for failing.

"May, I miss you so much. You were the best person I had ever met. I will keep being Spider-Man and I will continue to get better. I will be the best version of myself I can be, for you." Peter whispered to himself as he enjoyed the constant stories of May. She really was the best mother he could have ever had.


	9. The Announcement

Peter was made to wait a week after the funeral before getting back on the streets of New York. He wanted to get back right after the funeral, but Tony thought it was best for Peter's well being to take a break for a minute and compose himself before going back to Spider-Man. As Tony put it, "Deal with this as Peter for a week, then you can go deal with it as Spider-Man," so Peter decided that he wanted to go back to Wakanda to avoid the constant attention he got in the U.S. If he couldn't be Spider-Man in New York at least he could get away from dealing with the problems that came along with him.

T'Challa disagreed and wanted to have Peter stay in the states and address all the commotion with Spider-Man. Reluctantly Peter stayed but T'Challa allowed Shuri to stay in New York for 2 more weeks while T'Challa went back to Wakanda, as king he had constant responsibilities to deal with and he couldn't stay away from the country forever. As Shuri waved goodbye to her brother, she was excited about the opportunity to see the city again. She loved New York, and it was her favorite city besides Wakanda's capital of course.

The first day Peter stayed in the compound, even though Shuri wished to go see the city the first chance they got, and worked on his tech. As much tech as Tony put into his Iron-Spider suit, Peter preferred the sleeker and less bulky original costume and focused much of his efforts on implementing the best parts of the Iron-Spider armor into that suit. With Shuri's help, they were able to add extra appendages to the back of Peter's other costume. Peter really loved those "extra legs" and made it his top priority to include them. Shuri just wanted to make a different suit out of vibranium so they could add so many new possibilities, Peter originally only wanted to make improvements on the suit he already had but, he didn't turn down Suri's offer of another suit because there was always a reason for a new suit. After hours of work on improving the HUD in his mask the teens took a break.

Peter decided to make lunch for his girlfriend and made a couple sandwiches. Although Peter was very gifted in engineering and chemistry, the same could not be said for cooking and he decided to keep it extremely simple to lower the chances of mistakes. After lunch, they played some Mario Kart and tied eachother with points in the four matches they played.

While Peter was struggling to get over all the trauma he had gone through in the past few months, he was happy. Being with Shuri had, single handedly, brought him out of the dark hole he was falling him into. For the first time in his life, he was comfortable with intimacy and actually cherished all those moments with Shuri.

"Hey, Shuri, could I ask you something?" he asked.

"Sure?" she responded, not really knowing what to expect.

"Who know about this relationship?" he started, "I haven't told many people because of, well, this who situation. But I was wondering who knows because your the princess and I'm an outsider."

"I've told my mother, brother, Nakia, and the Dora. Don't worry about what everybody else thinks. I like you for you and I don't care what they say about it. You're my boyfriend and I am the only one who can make that decision not them or anyone else. Actually, I was thinking about announcing our relationship, what do you think about that?" Shuri was hoping that Peter was not afraid of her position as royalty, everyone that tried to date her was, and she didn't want to lose Peter. He was the only competent person she had met and she wasn't about to just lose him because he was an outsider.

"I don't really know what to expect when you announce it, but I've been wanting to tell people, too. I'm in a relationship with Shuri. The amazing Shuri. And I want the world to know that." Peter responded, "How do you want to announce it, my princess?" the last nickname got a blush to spread across Shuri's face. He enjoyed making her embarrassed, and it was revenge for all the times she embarrassed him.

"I was thinking, my spider, of posting something on my Facebook or Instagram. The media would definitely be looking for anything on you so using them to spread the news wouldn't be that hard."

"How about we make it a little harder for them to get a hold of it? They should have to work to get that good of information. How about you post a picture of a spider on your Instagram, and caption it 'NYC has been a great city. I've really liked the people that I have spent time with, one a little bit more than others…' and I'll like it immediately then after a hour I'll post something similar with a pic of a Panther statue, I took in Wakanda." he explained his devious plan. "After we see it getting popular we can change our statuses on our Facebook to 'In a Relationship' wait a couple hours then change it to 'In a Relationship with Shuri' or in your case 'In a Relationship with Peter' I just don't want to make it too easy on them, I want to make it special since it's you."

Shuri laughed and agreed to the idea. It took the media longer than they expected to figure out what they were saying. Peter changed the caption of his photo so much that people were thinking that they were two completely different pictures for a while until they liked each others posts. Then the dams broke through and they were flooded with messages from fans and friends.

Peter's Midtown friends, who were just getting over the news that Peter was Spider-Man, now got another shock in the news of Peter's and Shuri's relationship. The couple laughed about all the incoming texts Peter was receiving and decided to try to deny the rumours and confuse them even more. It wasn't until they changed their statuses to relationships with each other when they actually confirmed everything.

Just as they expected, once the media got the information, the news spread like wildfire with their phones blowing up the entire night.

The next morning Peter was going to take Shuri into the city, but they needed some advice on how to deal with the paparazzi. Turning to Tony, the resident expert in unwanted attention, they learned helpful tools on how to lose photographers and dodge personal questions. After a long conversation, Peter and Shuri were ready to go to the city. Peter carefully scheduled out when and where to go on the trip and was prepared to show Shuri the more unknown and underappreciated parts city but first they were going to see something else more important to him.


	10. Author's Note

Sorry everyone but I'll be ending the story prematurely. I just don't like how it has been written so far and I wanted to start a new story on Archives of Our Own anyways so I'll get a new start there. I have the same user name over there if you want to catch any other stories that go up there. Thanks for the support here!


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